REVIEW BY BEN STEVENS
Moving from the young to the old, all
eyes were naturally on the one-off return
of 2009 world champion and hair gel
enthusiast Jenson Button to the grid, and
based on his early running, well… let’s just
say it’s a good thing he didn’t have to travel
far.
Try as he might, the MCL32 remains
less than competitive, even with the lack of
emphasis on power around the principality.
On the bright side, seven months since
he last stepped in a race car (and a very
different one at that), Button managed to
finish just 0.035s off teammate Stoffel
Vandoorne in FP2 – mighty impressive,
especially given he hasn’t read the manual.
Also his “pass” on Lewis Hamilton down
into the Nouvelle chicane might be the highlight
of McLaren’s season. Never change, JB.
Elsewhere the talk of Thursday had to be
the performances of Red Bull, both senior and
junior. All four cars finished in the top 6,
with Daniel Ricciardo splitting the Ferraris
in the top 3, and Daniil Kvyat looking like
a first-team driver after holding off both
Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen.
With Mercedes struggling to setup the
car, it might be down to the bulls to stop
Ferrari from securing their first Monaco pole
since 2008 – although with Vettel nearly half
a second clear at the top, you wouldn’t bet on it.